Jump to content

Tube MP40 real?


Recommended Posts

Someone was telling me today some of the "Tube Guns" out there are actually genuine WW2 guns.. They said the company would just place there stamp on it.. Is this true? Anyone else over hear of this? Edited by daruss
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, for reasons of greed, indifference, ignorance and others, after the en of the '68 Amnesty, a significant number of unregistered MGs were just ID'd by the manufacturer and registered on F2s as "manufactured". There was no oversight of licensee or individual behavior in the realm of manufacturing/registering MGs for private possession. In the fifties, sixties and into the seventies, MGs were not regarded as worthy of collecting, there were great numbers of them offered in various registration status, most were afraid of Treasury and few had any inkling of how to acquire live MGs legally. Retail of DEWATs helped with the effort to acquaint collectors with MG collecting and there were a lot of outfits importing and DEWATing MGs. The $200 transfer tax was mostly insurmountable and ridiculed, but those ion the know understood that registering an MG preior to the end of the '68 Amnesty was free.

Anyway, as the remanufacturing of MGs heated up values started to stratify and factory made and registered DEWAT MGs brought a few more bucks than remans and pre-May samples were the least expensive. claiming that an MG was not "welded" created a bit of a premium, and no one really thought about the future. Unwelded MGs that did not go through the destruction and rebuild protocol required for registration between '68 and '86 are contraband.

I've seen quite a few…...

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keep in mind that there are also guns with a Mfg ID on them that are "re-activated" MGs - registered DEWATS that were made operable again by class IIs and so marked. so just because the gun is "original" and has a Class IIs name it is not a contraband gun necessarily. Bob does make a valid point on guns that were supposedly destroyed and then re-manufactured.... but were not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The easiest way to tell a "tube" MP40 from an original is to look inside the receiver tube. "Tube" guns will be smooth inside, made from a piece of tube with the "fluting" machine on the outside to give it the correct look.

Originals were made from a sheet of fluted (or corrugated)? rolled into a round shape, thus will have be "fluted" inside the receiver as well as outside.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...